WA teachers in the mood for change
By Ian Bolas
PERTH — Delegates at the annual conference of the WA Teachers' Union on September 29-October 1 overwhelmingly endorsed an agenda of change. This was the outcome of a campaign by rank and file members to win back control of the union in the aftermath of an executive decision in April to sack general secretary Peter Quinn.
A series of measures aimed at democratising the union's structure won the necessary two-thirds majority despite dire warnings from the right that the changes would not be ratified by the Industrial Relations Commission. Delegate Les Pearce summed up the mood of the conference when he said, "Let's not make decisions on the basis of what the IRC may or may not approve of; let's make our decisions on the basis of what we want".
In this spirit, the conference decided that the influential general secretary's position should be elected across the membership rather than appointed, as at present. It also restored full membership rights to the union's paid organisers, who were deprived of them by an IRC ruling late last year.
A radical proposal to free the union newspaper from leadership control by establishing an elected editorial committee was also endorsed. Moving the motion, Gail Reed drew attention to the paper's history of censorship and urged delegates to "believe in our ability to make positive change".
Another decision set up an elected disputes resolution committee to hear grievances within the union rather than taking them to the IRC under WA's notorious Section 66, which gives the commissioner almost unlimited power to interfere in the internal affairs of a union once a complaint has been made by a member.
A rash of Section 66 applications over the last year has severely disrupted the union. These applications were the tactical weapon of a putsch whose object it was to take control of the union by means of the IRC.
Their influence was blocked when the conference elected to its executive a reform ticket whose platform includes a number of practical measures to increase rank and file control of the union and its independence from state control. The reform alliance won all 14 positions on the executive.